Trump hits Bush: Invading Iraq 'the single worst decision ever made'

President Trump blasted former President George W. Bush on Saturday over the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, calling it "the single worst decision ever made."

Speaking at a closed-door event with Republican donors in Florida, Trump mocked Bush's intellect and compared his decision to invade Iraq to "throwing a big fat brick into a hornet's nest."

"Here we are, like the dummies of the world, because we had bad politicians running our country for a long time," Trump said, according to CNN, which obtained a recording of the president's remarks.

ADVERTISEMENT
"That was Bush. Another real genius. That was Bush," Trump joked. "That turned out to be wonderful intelligence. Great intelligence agency there."

Trump has repeatedly attacked the U.S. intelligence community, once pointing to its faulty assessment that the government of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction as evidence of its unreliability.

He has long held that he has always opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the United States's prolonged engagement in the country. Interviews recorded before the invasion, however, suggest otherwise.

Trump has had a strained relationship with the Bush family. He was never given the endorsement of George W. Bush or his father, former President George H.W. Bush. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), who briefly ran against Trump in the 2016 GOP presidential primary, never endorsed him either.